Avis Rent a Car has announced they, in a partnership with Autonet Mobile, will offer Wi-Fi for the reasonable price of $10.95 per day high speed Internet service in its cars by March. The connection would be via a MOBILE hotspot, rather than parking in some sort of strange Wi-Fi drive in, which was what first came to mind when I came across this news.
I’m pretty excited about it, except for running in to those people who cause near fatal accidents when they try to accomplish really difficult multi-tasking like driving and talking on the phone or driving and putting on lipstick. But I think this will have a huge impact on car renters who aren’t familiar with the area in which they are driving. GPS devices will give you the name and location of points of interest, such as restaurants, but they give you no other information. If you can get online, you could check to see restaurant reviews or if they are on your airline miles program.
What if you are traveling with a coworker? At any given time, one of you could be plugging away while the other is in the drivers seat. What a great way to avoid talking to someone you wish you weren’t traveling with!
I think the possibilities are endless, provided the technology isn’t so regulated that bans pop up before it really gets started.
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Certainly would be cool for long road trips, but hopefully they’ll find a way to prevent drivers from using it when they drive. I almost get hit enough on my bike as is and don’t need some dude surfing for Britney Spears slamming into me.
Speaking of which: “A survey released on Monday shows 81 percent of Americans do more than drive when they’re behind the wheel.”
I could have used this type of service on a recent family trip. My wife checks out XML files in the morning, works on them with her laptop while I’m driving and then checks them back in when she’s done. This is the perfect service for telecommuters who want to be “free to move about the country” without having to those unpaid contractor’s days off. $11 dollars/day is cheap when you can make over $200 driving across the country.
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